Battery Life
Gaming notebooks generally don’t have a long battery life because the faster processors and graphics generally consume more power than your average notebook. Given the specs on the Asus G51J, you wouldn’t expect the battery to last for an extended period – but does Asus have a surprise up their sleeve?

To test battery life, four tests are done:

  • PCMark Vantage Communication, Memories, and Productivity loop consisting of word processing, image editing, and web browsing
  • Gaming using DiRT 2
  • PC Perspective Article Productivity Test – an unscientific test using Office 2007 and web browsing while producing this article. These results are hard to reproduce as each work session is unique.
  • PC Perspective Browser Test – a custom productivity benchmark involving loading webpages and watching movies.
For all tests the default Windows 7 Balanced power profile was used with the following changes: screen dimming, screen shut-off, and system sleep all disabled. Low and critical battery levels were set as low as possible so the system can run itself completely dry. In reality you would have the above settings enabled to help conserve the battery. We disable these conservation features to help get a worst case scenario, so expect to get slightly better results in real life.

Asus G51J Notebook Review - Mobile PC Gaming for the Mainstream - Mobile 76


In all cases the Asus G51J did not produce results that were earth-shattering. Gaming drained the battery quickly in 40 minutes, while the PCPerspective article productivity test yielded just over 1 hour of activity before shutting down.

Asus G51J Notebook Review - Mobile PC Gaming for the Mainstream - Mobile 77


In the PC Perspective Web Browsing Test, we see that the G51J doesn’t quite break the 1 hour mark. Typically for a 15.4” laptop, you’d expect 1 to 2 hours of straight run time before needing to plug in. In light of this, I would strongly recommend using the included Asus Power 4 Gear Hybrid software which gives you additional control to underclock the CPU to reduce the system’s overall power consumption.

Asus G51J Notebook Review - Mobile PC Gaming for the Mainstream - Mobile 78

Asus does have a 9-cell battery option (not tested) if you want a little more time between charges – my approximation is about 30 minutes more. Also worth noting is the 1 year warranty coverage on the battery which guards against manufacturing defects and workmanship.

« PreviousNext »